Volunteers with The Dalles United Methodist Church helped pack almost 300 bags of food at the Columbia Gorge Food Bank on March 10 for kids in the North Wasco County School District who may not have enough food over the weekend. Several service groups volunteer for the Backpacks for Kids program, and volunteers are always welcome. Photo courtesy of Community Backpack Program The Dalles
Volunteers with The Dalles United Methodist Church helped pack almost 300 bags of food at the Columbia Gorge Food Bank on March 10 for kids in the North Wasco County School District who may not have enough food over the weekend. Several service groups volunteer for the Backpacks for Kids program, and volunteers are always welcome. Photo courtesy of Community Backpack Program The Dalles
THE DALLES — Glenis Schreffler spent over a decade filling bags for kids at The Dalles schools who needed food over the weekend. Now, she heads the Backpack For Kids program.
“This whole program started when staff, and especially cafeteria workers, noticed that there were some kids that were going back for seconds and thirds for food. Some of them would get their neighbors’ leftovers and eat them ... so they kept looking into this and discovered that there’s no food on the weekend for these kids,” Schreffler said. She was recently a guest speaker at The Dalles Community Affairs, a program of the Chamber of Commerce.
So Schreffler and a friend at United Methodist Church started with six bags in 2013. That number grew to 25 and kept growing.
A couple years in, “We had a meeting and we looked at each other and we said, ‘We got to just go for it. Apparently, there’s a need at the grade schools or we wouldn’t be packing for 50 in 25 bags.’ So we just bit the bullet. This whole program has been run on faith,” Schaffler said.
Ever since, they’ve been packing for kids at the grade schools and high school, including components for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Now, they’re working in a bigger, more practical space that has a conveyor belt, thanks to Columbia Gorge Food Bank.
This school year, the number of kids sits around 270-280; just after COVID-19, they served 425 children. Each bag holds enough to help a family of four through the weekend: staples like beans, vegetables, soup, noodles, fruit. Sometimes more unusual things like hominy or celery, if the food bank supply chain is getting them.
There’s no qualification needed — the program won’t ask a kid about financial need, just hand them food. It’s self-regulating, because eventually kids (and parents!) get sick of the same old food, or the kid gets tired of hauling 10-12 pound bags home, she said.
“Our donation base has kept increasing. And oddly enough, or faithfully enough, we have never run out of money,” Schaffler said.
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